- seCtIon tWo: tHe BRAIn
and that things must be either in or out of consciousness – i.e. on the stage or
screen of the metaphorical theatre or not. Even the common phrase ‘the contents
of consciousness’ implies that consciousness is a kind of space or container.
If the Cartesian Theatre really does not exist, if ‘consciousness is not a container’
(Blackmore, 2002), then these commonly used phrases must be misleading, and
the mistake they depend on may help us understand the confusion surrounding
the whole idea of consciousness. If, on the other hand, despite Dennett’s objec-
tions, some kind of theatre does exist, we should be able to find out what or
where it is. In this chapter, we shall consider the evidence.
‘the view you arrive
at when you discard
Descartes’ dualism
but fail to discard the
imagery of a central (but
material) Theatre where
“it all comes together” ’
(Dennett, 1991, p. 107)
PRACTICE 5.1
WHAT IS IT THAT IS CONSCIOUS?As many times as you can, every day, ask yourself: ‘Am I conscious
now? What is conscious?’ Turn your attention away from what you are
conscious of to what is conscious of it.
You might be confident that this is ‘me’, but what does that mean? The aim
here is to ponder the physical substrate of your experience. Those who
object to the mereological fallacy argue that only a whole person can
be conscious, not brains or parts of brains, but what does this mean in
experience? Try to inquire into your experience now.
Is it your whole physical body that you feel is conscious? Is it your brain?
Is it just part of your body or brain? Is consciousness something the brain
does? Is it something that could be downloaded into another machine
which would still be conscious as you are now? Is consciousness separable
from what there is consciousness of?
Are you still conscious now? If so, what is still conscious?THE PLACE WHERE CONSCIOUSNESS
HAPPENS
One implication of CM is that there must be a time and a place at which neural
processing all comes together to produce a conscious experience – the show in
the CT. If this is so, we should be able to find that time and place. We’ll start with
what might seem the easier one: the place. So where is it? Let’s take a concrete
example of a conscious experience to work with. Right now, please – consciously
and deliberately – take a thumb, raise it to your face and press it against the end
of your nose. Feel the thumb-on-nose sensations and then let go. It may have felt
as though you were sitting in the best seat of your Cartesian Theatre, deciding to
do this simple action (or not), and then feeling the sensation. So where did the
consciousness happen?